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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

Selected Works

Stars: massive

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Probing Wolf–Rayet Winds: Chandra/Hetg X-Ray Spectra Of Wr 6, David P. Huenemoerder, K. G. Gayley, Wolf-Rainer Hamann, Richard Ignace, J. S. Nichols, Lidia M. Oskinova, A. M.T. Pollock, Nobert S. Schulz, Tomer Shenar Aug 2018

Probing Wolf–Rayet Winds: Chandra/Hetg X-Ray Spectra Of Wr 6, David P. Huenemoerder, K. G. Gayley, Wolf-Rainer Hamann, Richard Ignace, J. S. Nichols, Lidia M. Oskinova, A. M.T. Pollock, Nobert S. Schulz, Tomer Shenar

Richard Ignace

With a deep Chandra/HETGS exposure of WR 6, we have resolved emission lines whose profiles show that the X-rays originate from a uniformly expanding spherical wind of high X-ray-continuum optical depth. The presence of strong helium-like forbidden lines places the source of X-ray emission at tens to hundreds of stellar radii from the photosphere. Variability was present in X-rays and simultaneous optical photometry, but neither were correlated with the known period of the system or with each other. An enhanced abundance of sodium revealed nuclear-processed material, a quantity related to the evolutionary state of the star. The characterization of …


On The Binary Nature Of Massive Blue Hypergiants: High-Resolution X-Ray Spectroscopy Suggests That Cyg Ob2 12 Is A Colliding Wind Binary - Iopscience, Lidia M. Oskinova, David P. Huenemoerder, Wolf-Rainer Hamann, Tomer Shenar, A. A.C. Sander, Richard Ignace, H. Todt, R. Hainich Aug 2018

On The Binary Nature Of Massive Blue Hypergiants: High-Resolution X-Ray Spectroscopy Suggests That Cyg Ob2 12 Is A Colliding Wind Binary - Iopscience, Lidia M. Oskinova, David P. Huenemoerder, Wolf-Rainer Hamann, Tomer Shenar, A. A.C. Sander, Richard Ignace, H. Todt, R. Hainich

Richard Ignace

The blue hypergiant Cyg OB2 12 (B3Ia+) is a representative member of the class of very massive stars in a poorly understood evolutionary stage. We obtained its high-resolution X-ray spectrum using the Chandra observatory. PoWR model atmospheres were calculated to provide realistic wind opacities and to establish the wind density structure. We find that collisional de-excitation is the dominant mechanism depopulating the metastable upper levels of the forbidden lines of the He-like ions Si xivand Mg xii. Comparison between the model and observations reveals that X-ray emission is produced in a dense plasma, which could reside only at the photosphere …


On The Absence Of Non-Thermal X-Ray Emission Around Runaway O Stars, Jesus A. Toalá, Lidia M. Oskinova, Richard Ignace Aug 2018

On The Absence Of Non-Thermal X-Ray Emission Around Runaway O Stars, Jesus A. Toalá, Lidia M. Oskinova, Richard Ignace

Richard Ignace

Theoretical models predict that the compressed interstellar medium around runaway O stars can produce high-energy non-thermal diffuse emission, in particular, non-thermal X-ray and γ-ray emission. So far, detection of non-thermal X-ray emission was claimed for only one runaway star, AE Aur. We present a search for non-thermal diffuse X-ray emission from bow shocks using archived XMM-Newton observations for a clean sample of six well-determined runaway O stars. We find that none of these objects present diffuse X-ray emission associated with their bow shocks, similarly to previous X-ray studies toward ζ Oph and BD+43°3654. We carefully investigated multi-wavelength observations of …